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The Latest Rotary Peace Center Opens in Istanbul
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Rotary partners with leading universities around the world to offer post-graduate education in peace and related fields, and the newest Rotary Peace Center is opening this month in Istanbul. Our District has played a unique role in its development: Marty Helman, member of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club, past Governor of our District and currently a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation, nailed the financial gift of over $15 million that led both to the Center’s creation and also its name.
The Otto and Fran Walter Rotary Peace Center at Bahçeşehir University will bring together peacemakers from across the Middle East and North Africa – people with different backgrounds and cultural and religious viewpoints, but who share common goals – and will provide them with the resources and experiences needed to work together to promote peace within the region.
Marty Helman stands with a portrait of Dr. Otto and Fran Walter at the ribbon-cutting for the new Peace Center last year.
Marty hastens to explain that the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation monies are part of the life estate and legacy of a former Rotarian who washed up in New York City in the years preceding WWII. A plaque that will hang in the new Peace Center explains further:
Driven from his native Bavaria by the Nazis, Dr. Otto Walter became a powerful voice for German-American reconciliation in the decades following World War II. Fran Doonan Walter never forgot the prejudices she encountered during her impoverished youth in the United States.
Together, they responded to the injustices they had experienced with charity and love. They promoted global understanding through legal reforms and supported education and the arts. They fought food insecurity through social and legislative action.
May all who study here find strength and inspiration in the lives of Otto and Fran Walter to champion peace, protect the vulnerable, and uplift the human spirit.
Marty and her late husband, Frank, worked tirelessly to bring about the new Peace Center for a number of years, and this opening is the culmination of their dreams. “Now,” Marty says, “it’s up to the young people who study at the Center to carry on the mantle. Peace doesn’t just happen – it’s built from the ground up. So we may never know precisely what change will be wrought by the Rotary Peace Fellows who study at Bahçeşehir. But we know the world will be a better place for their hard work and commitment.”